The invention relates to a low voltage current breaking device with a modular case having a front face, two large parallel side faces, and two small side faces, each presenting a shoulder to house a pair of power terminals and a pair of control terminals, said shoulders being located opposite the front face towards the rear part of the case, in which case there are housed and connected in series a solid-state switch and a pair of separable contacts actuated by a mechanism having an operating toggle, located on said front face and a trip release causing the contacts to separate when a fault occurs thus protecting the solid-state switch.
A device of the kind mentioned, for example as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,172, enables opening and closing of a circuit to be controlled by a solid-state switch, which may be remote controlled. When a fault occurs, the separable contacts open automatically protecting the solid-state switch and interrupting the circuit. Control of the separable contacts may be manual by means of a toggle located on the front of the device. The solid-state switch is housed inside the moulded case in a special compartment under one of the terminals, but this arrangement may cause overheating jeopardizing satisfactory operation of the device and in addition requires the profile of the case to be increased.
The object of the present invention is to achieve a device with a solid-state switch and built-in circuit breaker providing efficient cooling of the solid-state switch while complying with a standard size.